Causes

On Friday, Immigration Equality joined a coalition of other LGBT organizations in calling on Congress to take immediate action on the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA). The coalition letter follows an indefinite postponement of Congressional hearings on the bill, and calls on lawmakers to move the bill immediately.

The news from the New York State Senate this week was sad to hear. In their vote on a bill that would have ended marriage discrimination against same-sex couples in the state, eight Democratic senators and five Republican senators who had indicated their willingness to vote for the bill ended up voting no. The bill did not pass.

In California, we still have a state of crisis. While the number of deaths from AIDS has dropped slightly over the past several years, the number of people living with AIDS has risen steadily since 2002.

NBC News reports that the District of Columbia City Council has voted 11-2 in favor of marriage equality. Meanwhile, in New Jersey, the State Legislature is backing off of earlier indications that they would pass a marriage equality bill before the end of the year.

"Harvey Milk didn’t wait for research. He hit the streets year after year. We honor his memory by gathering signatures now so our rights can be restored in 2010 not at some later time when it might be an easier struggle.”

Newsweek has just published a new story on the number of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people seeking asylum in the United States, and highlights an Immigration Equality client and the organization’s work to assist LGBT asylum seekers.